title: Encoding variability and age-related retrieval failures.
abstract: The hypothesis that an age-related decrease in consistency of processing may contribute to age-related deficits in episodic remembering was examined in 2 experiments. Older and younger adults generated properties to a series of target words on 2 occasions. Encoding variability was determined by calculating the degree of intra- and intersubject overlap of properties generated on both occasions. Experiment 1 showed that older adults' interpretations varied more than those of younger adults. Furthermore, older adults were less idiosyncratic in their descriptions than were younger adults. Experiment 2 replicated this pattern of results and showed that the observed age-related decrease in consistency of processing was associated with age-related retrieval failures. An age-related decrease in distinctiveness of encoding was proposed as a factor underlying age differences in consistency that, in turn, is assumed to contribute to age-related deficits in episodic remembering.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mäntylä
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bäckman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory; D011939:Mental Recall; D012660:Semantics; D014936:Word Association Tests